Railroad switch stands currently offered and utilized in the United States by its rail transportation industry are available in many different construction and operation configurations. Some railroad switch stands are operated using primarily manual input forces, often with automatic reversal if run through by a trailing non-switched train, while other available switch stands are operated remotely using non-manual (e.g., electrical or hydraulic) actuation forces. Such remotely-controlled switch stands generally are provided with manual override actuation capabilities.
Most available manually-operated railroad switch stands provide some form of crank and crank-handle mechanism (sometimes referred to as a lever and handle mechanism) for manual actuation by operating personnel, although other input devices such as a handwheel which drives the switch throw mechanism as through a worm and worm gear combination may be provided to minimize required manual input forces. See, for instance, the railroad switch stand construction disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,438 issued in the name of Farrell et al. and assigned to the assignee of this invention.
In the case of railroad switch stands provided with a crank and crank-handle manual actuation mechanism, it is well-known that operating personnel may frequently experience costly serious back injury, generally of the nature of spinal and/or muscular injury, in the course of actuating any of the presently available manually-operable switch stands. Through the application of ergonomic principles to the design of a railroad switch stand, and particularly its manual input crank, I have discovered a switch and crank construction which is effective to reduce the occurrence of the previously-mentioned back injuries to railroad operating personnel.